A programmable integrated circuit has programmable elements that are loaded with full configuration data. The full configuration data in the programmable elements is used to configure or reconfigure programmable logic on the circuit to store data or perform a custom logic function. Partial reconfiguration (PR) enables a user to define and constraint different PR regions in an integrated circuit device during design creation and to reconfigure the different PR regions during user mode. When a PR region is defined in a user design, PR bit streams (or PR data) are generated along with the full configuration data. The generated PR bit streams may then be used to reconfigure the defined PR regions during user mode. Regions that are non-reconfigurable in user mode (also referred collectively as a static region) are configured during device configuration before entering user mode (i.e., before the device enters normal operational mode).
However, the flexibility and ease of reconfiguring a PR region may be error prone as the user may accidentally reconfigure a PR region with incompatible PR data (e.g., PR bit streams). For example, when a user design is updated and recompiled, new full configuration data may be generated to replace the previous full configuration data. If the updated user design includes a modified PR region, a new set of PR data may also be generated along with the new full configuration data. When PR data from a previous compilation of the user design is mistakenly used to reconfigure the PR region in the integrated circuit device (which has since been updated with the new full configuration data), the existing user design on the integrated circuit device may be corrupted and may damage the integrated circuit device.